# Want to see avatars on the SDMB? Here's a script.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 8, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636 "2012-07-08T21:44:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Full\_Tilt\_Boogie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Full\_Tilt\_Boogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Tilt_Boogie)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/101 "2012-07-27T17:48:27Z")

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> [@Giraffe](#):
>
> Most people don’t show their signatures very often. To display a signature, you have to check the “Show your signature” box when posting. I’ll post mine, can you see it?

Can you see mine?

I can’t -even after editing the post.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/102 "2012-07-27T17:49:44Z")

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> [@Giraffe](#):
>
> Most people don’t show their signatures very often. To display a signature, you have to check the “Show your signature” box when posting. I’ll post mine, can you see it?

I can see yours. Never heard of lupus porn before.

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**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/103 "2012-07-27T23:15:40Z")

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> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> I suspected as much, I just wanted to make sure that Fenris and I were on the same page since it appears we should have the same display.  
> edit: I’m not upset or anything. As far as I’m concerned the picture can stay or go. But, I figure there might be people who are in a similar situation who would appreciate a heads up as well as any members who are thinking of becoming guests who might want to remove their profile pic beforehand.

Regarding all this, there was a bug in the script that was causing it to grab your old profile pic even though one is not visible on your profile. I fixed that. It’s probably a bug in vbulletin that it even allows people to get that old pic, but I guess it’s pretty obscure.

Since I run the avatar-looker-upper, I’m the one to complain to if it’s not displaying the right picture, not **Crazyhorse**. Feel free to post here if you see oddities, or PM me. And if your avatar mysteriously turns into something completely unexpected … uh, it was gnomes. But feel free to PM me to say “ha ha very funny now put it back, jerk.”

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**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/104 "2012-07-27T23:34:18Z")

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> [@Crazyhorse](#):
>
> Also the link goes to a display page but not the image itself - try
> 
> SDMB Avatar: [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](http://i.imgur.com/umKD7.jpg)

BTW, it seems that you can convert an imgur page url into the corresponding image url just by appending “.jpg” to it, so I made the script do that automatically if you post an imgur url without an extension (which is why **Stickler’s** avatar is working now).

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**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/105 "2012-07-27T23:40:15Z")

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> [@spinky](#):
>
> BTW, it seems that you can convert an imgur page url into the corresponding image url just by appending “.jpg” to it, so I made the script do that automatically if you post an imgur url without an extension (which is why **Stickler’s** avatar is working now).

Ah, I was wondering. I noticed the same thing and then between the time I posted that and viewed the thread again his avatar had already appeared without any changes. That CGI is a firecracker. I hope we aren’t taxing the server with too many requests as the script gets more use. It is taking one for the team and allowing SDMB users to have avatars without the SDMB servers themselves having to take the brunt of the traffic and bandwidth use.

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**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/106 "2012-07-28T00:08:26Z")

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> [@Crazyhorse](#):
>
> I hope we aren’t taxing the server with too many requests as the script gets more use. It is taking one for the team and allowing SDMB users to have avatars without the SDMB servers themselves having to take the brunt of the traffic and bandwidth use.

Not at all. It’s no longer actually a CGI, since that’s actually a bit more resource intensive than a dedicated app. It’s barely a blip in the server load. And bandwidth is minuscule as well, since its only job is to sit there and return redirection urls. The images themselves get loaded from photobucket or wherever people want to host them.

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/107 "2012-07-29T01:24:39Z")

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> [@Crazyhorse](#):
>
> In addition to displaying avatars for all users who have specified one with no configuration required, the script has a number of cool optional features such as changing the avatar display size, assigning a custom avatar to any poster, displaying a default avatar for all users who have not specified one, and displaying a selected avatar for all banned users. Configuring these optional features is simple and instructions are included in the comments within the script.

I found the comments explaining how to edit the code, but what app do I use to do the edits? I tried to open the script by double-clicking on it but got “error - document is undefined”. I can drag it into notepad and made the edits, but then how to save it so that it’s still a .js file?

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/108 "2012-07-29T01:40:20Z")

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Where was the info to assign someone an avatar? Right now I’m too lazy to look for it. 😉

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**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/109 "2012-07-29T01:43:35Z")

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That was wicked easy. Thanks for setting it up and explaining it!

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/110 "2012-07-29T01:47:05Z")

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Actually I found the instructions embedded along with the script itself. When I drag the script into notepad, the instructions are there. Here’s the relevant bit:

```auto

// CUSTOM-ASSIGNED AVATARS
// Optionally add SDMB usernames and URLs in the list below to assign custom avatars to any posters.
// This can be used to block a given avatar by overriding their avatar choice, or to assign
// avatars to individual posters for any reason.

// Use the format <'username' : 'URL'> as shown in the examples below to add to the list.

var CustomAvatars = {

				'SDMB Username' : 'http://link.to.image/image.jpg',

				'SdMb username 2' : 'http://another.image.link/image2.gif',
				
				'sdmb username 3' : 'http://another.link/image3.png' //<-- no comma after the final entry

				};

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/111 "2012-07-29T02:03:34Z")

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> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> Where was the info to assign someone an avatar? Right now I’m too lazy to look for it. 😉

I remember you use chrome so to find the copy of the avatar script that it is currently using follow the path in [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15251368&postcount=10) earlier in this thread.

Once you find it, open it in a text editor and just add any name and URL combo you want to the list, and save it. As Patty said once you get it open, it has instructions inside but here is the short version:

Instead of the example:

‘SDMB Username’ : ‘www. [URL.com - MediaOptions](http://url.com/image.jpg)’

you would add

‘Fear Itself’ : ‘[URL.com - MediaOptions](http://www.url.com/whatever) image you want’

Make sure the username and the URL are each enclosed in their own set of single quotes, and have a colon between them.

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/112 "2012-07-29T02:10:28Z")

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I’m not finding a folder called documents and settings – and it’s not letting me in to edit the script. ☹  
Which version of windows is that? I’m using Vista.

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**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/113 "2012-07-29T02:33:17Z")

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> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> I’m not finding a folder called documents and settings – and it’s not letting me in to edit the script. ☹  
> Which version of windows is that? I’m using Vista.

That was probably for XP, this site shows the Chrome userscript location for all supported OS’s: [User Data Directory](http://www.chromium.org/user-experience/user-data-directory)

In vista it would be:

C:\Users&lt;username\>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/114 "2012-07-29T03:09:57Z")

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> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#):
>
> I found the comments explaining how to edit the code, but what app do I use to do the edits? I tried to open the script by double-clicking on it but got “error - document is undefined”. I can drag it into notepad and made the edits, but then how to save it so that it’s still a .js file?

I found out how. Just drag the script into notepad, make the edit and hit save (not “save as”).

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/115 "2012-07-29T03:12:47Z")

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Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/116 "2012-07-29T03:32:45Z")

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As long as I’m here… I am seeing the [frog in the ice cube](http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1473/5747827/15966180/403511730.jpg) with the “domain unregistered…” notice under it as an avatar for several people. **Crazyhorse** , **cmyk** and **SisterVigilante** are three examples.

I assume they’re not putting this link there on purpose… what’s up?

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**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/117 "2012-07-29T04:01:39Z")

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> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#):
>
> As long as I’m here… I am seeing the [frog in the ice cube](http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1473/5747827/15966180/403511730.jpg) with the “domain unregistered…” notice under it as an avatar for several people. **Crazyhorse** , **cmyk** and **SisterVigilante** are three examples.
> 
> I assume they’re not putting this link there on purpose… what’s up?

Really?

I’m using imageshack. Anyone else seeing the frog, and not my gorgeous 8-bit face?

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/118 "2012-07-29T04:04:33Z")

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> [@cmyk](#):
>
> Really?
> 
> I’m using imageshack. Anyone else seeing the frog, and not my gorgeous 8-bit face?

I see the face.

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**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/119 "2012-07-29T04:05:52Z")

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The only frog I see is Goatse Kermit. All avatars are displaying fine for me.

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**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2012, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-see-avatars-on-the-sdmb-heres-a-script/627636/120 "2012-07-29T04:15:37Z")

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I don’t see the frog for anyone including myself, but from what I can find after a quick search it looks like imageshack does this as some kind of [advertising scheme](https://getsatisfaction.com/imageshack/topics/why_my_images_show_unregistered_domain). If so, I will be getting a different image host very quickly.

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